Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) refers to a network of systems that measure, collect and analyze energy usage, and interact with advanced devices such as electricity meters, gas meters, heat meters, and water meters, through various communication media either on request (on-demand) or on pre-defined schedules. This infrastructure may include, for example, hardware, software, communications, consumer energy displays and controllers, customer associated systems, Meter Data Management (MDM) software, supplier and network distribution business systems, or other metering network components. The network of systems allows collection and distribution of information to customers, suppliers, utility companies and service providers. This enables these businesses to either participate in, or provide, demand response solutions, products and services.
One way in which utility companies coordinate access to the AMI is to create a new instance for each customer. Each created instance includes a list of devices associated with the customer so that the customer can access the customer's data within the AMI using the instance. However, this increases cost and overhead for utility companies that want to (1) share access to data stored within the AMI with multiple customers and (2) protect data stored within the AMI.
The foregoing background discussion is intended solely to aid the reader. It is not intended to limit the innovations described herein. Thus, the foregoing discussion should not be taken to indicate that any particular element of a prior system is unsuitable for use with the innovations described herein, nor is it intended to indicate that any element is essential in implementing the innovations described herein. The implementations and application of the innovations described herein are defined by the appended claims.